Baltimore City Power Rankings: Barbara Mikulski, $RB, O'Malley, more

Illustration by Alex Fine

Mikulski Baltimore's senior senator, the longest-serving woman in Senate history, announced this week that she will retire when her term ends in 2016. The 78-year-old Highlandtown native, with her thick Baltimore accent and take-no-bullshit approach to legislating, served her city and state well, pushing signature legislation like block grants to provide child care to the poor and protecting employees from retaliation for uncovering unfair wage practices. She'll be missed.

Mikulski Baltimore's senior senator, the longest-serving woman in Senate history, announced this week that she will retire when her term ends in 2016. The 78-year-old Highlandtown native, with her thick Baltimore accent and take-no-bullshit approach to legislating, served her city and state well, pushing signature legislation like block grants to provide child care to the poor and protecting employees from retaliation for uncovering unfair wage practices. She'll be missed. (Illustration by Alex Fine)

BPD While Commissioner Batts continues a public relations campaign, most recently sitting down for an hourlong interview on C-SPAN in which he talked about bridging racial and economic divides in Baltimore--a worthy topic, to be sure--the department is dogged with more bad press, this time an audit, which the department is fighting to keep secret, that revealed many officers falsified credentials to earn better pay. Underlining Batts' point about racial divisions, a push to make the audit public comes from one officer identified in it who says he was singled about for punishment because he is black, even though white officers were found guilty of similar offenses.

BPD While Commissioner Batts continues a public relations campaign, most recently sitting down for an hourlong interview on C-SPAN in which he talked about bridging racial and economic divides in Baltimore--a worthy topic, to be sure--the department is dogged with more bad press, this time an audit, which the department is fighting to keep secret, that revealed many officers falsified credentials to earn better pay. Underlining Batts' point about racial divisions, a push to make the audit public comes from one officer identified in it who says he was singled about for punishment because he is black, even though white officers were found guilty of similar offenses. (Illustration by Alex Fine)